Beastie Boys break silence, fight for their rights over 'Girls' video

Rene Lynch

The Beastie Boys are fighting for their right to protect their music from being used in advertising.

The Beastie Boys issued an open letter Monday morning accusing GoldieBlox of crossing that line when the toy company put a female-empowerment twist on "Girls" in a video/commercial that has now been seen more than 8.2 million times.

And the musical group said it had been wrongly portrayed as being the first to resort to legal action in the matter, when it was the other way around.

The group was mum on the controversy until its Monday morning statement, which started by praising the video, noting that "we were very impressed by the creativity and the message behind your ad."

But, the group said, the video is still that -- an ad, a commercial intended to sell toys (albeit toys aimed at encouraging a new generation of girls to enter the engineering field).

"We strongly support empowering young girls, breaking down gender stereotypes and igniting a passion for technology and engineering," the statement said. "As creative as it is, make no mistake, your video is an advertisement that is designed to sell a product, and long ago, we made a conscious decision not to permit our music and/or name to be used in product ads."

The video in question is a sendup of the hit "Girls" that puts a spin on the original song's language as three young girls unleash a Rube Goldberg-inspired contraption on the world, proving that little girls are made up of more than sugar and spice and everything nice.

The video set the Internet on fire.

On Friday, though, GoldieBlox representatives filed a court document seeking protection from legal action, saying that "the Beastie Boys have now threatened GoldieBlox with copyright infringement." GoldieBlox representatives contend that the video is a parody that does not infringe on copyrights and is protected by the Fair Use Doctrine.

But the Beastie Boys say that's not what happened.

Their statement says that it was GoldieBlox who went on the legal offense: "When we tried to simply ask how and why our song 'Girls' had been used in your ad without our permission, YOU sued US."

Online reaction has been divided, with many saying the Beastie Boys should let this one go, because the message is so positive and upbeat.

Not so fast, others say.

The message, no matter how positive and upbeat, is still a thinly veiled commercial that swiped the group's music without permission.

Here are some comments posted online at our earlier story: "Yes, it's cute, but essentially it's a corporation trying to sell a toy" said one comment. Another said: "This is a blatant rip-off of an artists' song used to sell toys. C'mon!...To the Beastie Boys, I say "sue 'em!""